WILMINGTON, Mass. – Knowing that Bruins forward Brad Marchand can be equally as sour-milk repulsive to referees as he is to opponents, it was fair to deduce that the kneeing penalty called against the rookie Saturday night was more about reputation than actual fact.

After all, replays showed that Marchand upended New Jersey’s Dainius Zubrus with a clean hip check as the Devils forward carried the puck across his own blue line.

But Marchand didn’t draw a correlation between the bum call and the agitating reputation he has built up in the American Hockey League and continues to nurture in the NHL.

“I think the biggest thing is they thought it might’ve been dirty. I hit him low,” said Marchand after practice today at Ristuccia Arena. “He’s 6-foot-4, 6-foot-5, and I’m only 5-foot-8. I kind of clipped him a little low and the ref made a decision. You live with it. But I don’t think that’s being on the bad side of the refs.

“There’s been times already this season when [head coach] Claude [Julien] has told me to settle down a bit and the refs have told him I’m going to get a penalty if I keep doing the things I’m doing. I just kind of have to watch that, but that hit wasn’t part of that, I don’t think.”

Marchand said the coaches let him know later in the game that he wasn’t at fault on the play, which put the Bruins down 5-on-3 for 1:20. Boston killed the penalty off, and Marchand marched on playing his usual brand of gritty, bend-the-line hockey. He even added an assist later.

So Julien isn’t going to ask his pesky winger to alter his approach.

“I think it’s a situation where he has to play his game. He went in and to us it seemed like a clean hit. If it’s perceived another way, you know you’re going to get some tough calls all year long,” said the coach. “And the good part about it is we knew all along, in our minds, it was a clean hit. And it was a tough call for him. It was up to the rest of the team to kind of bail him out and they did. So I’m not going to ask him to change his style. He’s doing what he does pretty well and that’s why he’s in our lineup right now. I’m certainly going to look at that as a negative as much as ‘keep playing your game’ and hopefully the referees make the right calls.”

As Marchand pointed out, his size disadvantage leaves him with little choice than to sometimes go at an opponent low. The risk of a call against him won’t stop him from continuing to practice the lost art of the hip check.

“They look pretty good when you can catch one,” he said. “But they can be dangerous at times too. You’ve just got to watch it.”

a few weeks ago I saw the video the nhl put together regarding how they were calling hits this year, mostly about hits to the head, and in the montage of “bad” hits were some textbook clean hip checks. I wonder if the call was a result of that? and if so, the b’s and marchand may have to change that approach a little, but hopefully not! I love a great hip check

It was a tough call, and Zubris’ knee did go upwards as he was hit primarily by the force of the collision throwing him off balance. It was at least close, though a poor call. I can live with those. The upside to throwing those checks is enormous when done at the right time and in the right way. I hope Marchand has more of that in store

Agree on the bum call, but it happened really quick and can see how it looked like a knee to knee hit at full speed. Think it was just a case of a smaller guy vs a taller guy. Agree with Karl as well, that PK was turning was very crucial.